The Post-1945 Internationalization of Economics. 1996. Edited by A. W. Coats. Supplement to volume 28 of HOPE. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Part 1
"Introduction," by A. W. Coats (pp. 3–11). The remarkable post-World War II expansion of universities and postgraduate education in economics has been an essential enabling factor determining the supply of trained personnel, a supply that has responded to the rising demand for economists and the concomitant growth in the number and variety of their employment opportunities, both within and beyond academia.
"Postwar Changes in American Graduate Education in Economics," by William J. Barber (pp. 12–30). The United States became the leader in economics after the Second World War, but the area in which the American component of the economics profession has enjoyed a competitive advantage—high technique—may be subject to diminishing returns, if not negative ones.
Part 2
"The Changing Character of British Economics," by Roger E. Backhouse (pp. 33–60). Though it retains many distinctive features, British economics is now undeniably international, exhibiting many of the features of what has been called American-style professional economics.
"The Australian Experience," by Peter Groenewegen (pp. 61–79). The Australian experience appears to show that although the internationalization of a profession like economics need not do so, it can nevertheless produce what is increasingly beginning to look like homogenization with, if not cloning from, its foreign role model.
"The Professionalization of Economics in India," by S. Ambirajan (pp. 80–96). Because of India's peculiar historical and social circumstances, the professionalization of economics in that country followed a different trajectory than in other countries and has emphasized not the derivation of testable hypotheses, but the construction of workable models with policy content.
"The Americanization of Economics in Korea," by Young Back Choi (pp. 97–122). The growth of economics in Korea has one pronounced feature: the preponderance of graduate training in
the United States, making the economics profession in Korea an American clone.
"The Internationalization of Economics in Japan," by Aiko Ikeo (pp. 123–41). The majority of economists in Japan were Marxists from I945 until the mid-1960s, after which he balance of power shifted to neoclassical and Keynesian economists, as Japanese economic life was enhanced by rapid economic growth.
"The Dissolution of the Swedish Tradition," by Bo Sandelin and Ann Veiderpass (pp. 142–64). Despite the strong Swedish tradition in economics, especially the success of the well-known Stockholm School in the 1930s, there is now so little that is specifically Swedish in Swedish economics, thanks in part to the characteristics of the Stockholm School itself.
"Italian Economics through the Postwar Years," by Pier Luigi Porta (pp. 165–83). The Italian case is dominated by a lack of uniformity in ideas and research lines, and by predominantly internal factors pushing in the direction of intensified internationalization, not to be confused with Americanization.
"The Professionalization and Political Impacts of the Internationalization of Economics in Brazil," by Maria Rita Loureiro (pp. 184–207). The effects of internationalization have reinforced the polarization of the schools of economics around two divergent positions: schools that are completely integrated into the international or North American scientific patterns, and schools that resist this process for theoretical and ideological reasons.
Part 3
"The Contribution of the International Monetary Fund," by Jacques J. Polak (pp. 211–24). The contribution of organizations such as the IMF to the internationalization of economics is marginal compared to the spread of economics that comes about through the more normal academic channels: the welcome mat to foreign students in major universities, national and international economics journals, and so on.
"The World Bank as an International Player in Economic Analysis," by Barend A. de Vries (pp. 225–44). The Bank’s dissemination, dialogue, training and technical assistance, and interchange with the academic profession have expanded with the scope of its analytical work, revealing the Bank to be a major player in the spread of development and international economics around the world.
"The Development of Economic Thought at the European Community Institutions," by Ivo Maes (pp. 245–76). Economic thought at the European Community institutions is, to a large
extent, centered around the notion of economic integration, implying a transfer of sovereignty from the national to the European level.
Part 4
"Economists in Political and Policy Elites in Latin America," by Verónica Montecinos (pp. 279–300). To a significant extent, the current consensus among Latin American economists stems from the absence of competing professional projects that might otherwise involve fundamental challenges to the established mission of the profession or attempts to create alternative professional hierarchies or subcultures.
"Good Economics Comes to Latin America, 1955–95," by Arnold C. Harberger (pp. 301–11). Modern economic training has fed the process of liberalization, modernization, and policy reform in Latin America—a process that needs to continue in the countries where reform is already well underway and to begin in the numerous countries where it is sorely lacking.
"The Evolution of Postwar Doctrines in Development Economics," by William Ascher (pp. 312–36). Neoclassical economics, in a perhaps diluted form in terms of its substantive and theoretical content, has become the only professionally legitimate approach for development economists working in most government agencies and international organizations.
"The Internationalization of Economic Policy Reform: Some Recent Literature," by A. W. Coats (pp. 337–54). The internationalization of economics is a vast, complex, and gradually evolving process encompassing the spread of economic ideas, the education and training of economists, and the activities of the individuals and groups engaged in the application of economic ideas and techniques to policy.
Part 5
"Comments," by Margaret Garritsen de Vries (pp. 357–63). Our current economics, to be “good economics,” needs to be supplemented by special policies for poverty alleviation or even eradication, for protecting the environment, and, in effect, for changing the basic conditions in an economy.
"Comments," by John Williamson (pp. 364–68). What has been rightly resisted inside and outside the United States is the contention that real economics consists of a neoclassical model in which everyone engages in individual maximization and no one has any market power, and which holds that any analysis that departs from those assumptions is illegitimate.
"Report of Discussions," by A. W. Coats (pp. 369–91)
Part 6
"Conclusion," by A. W. Coats (pp. 395–400)